


Endings and Beginnings

by sweet_and_sour_candy_77



Category: Final Fantasy I
Genre: Gen, Post-Game(s), Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 10:51:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16763692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweet_and_sour_candy_77/pseuds/sweet_and_sour_candy_77
Summary: The Time Loop has been broken.  Is Garland once again the noble knight he once was?





	Endings and Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FireEye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/gifts).



> Many thanks to Chelonie for help with this fic!!!

Garland stood at the back of the procession of knights who were in line to pledge their loyalty to the King and Queen of Cornelia and to Princess Sara. For a long moment he felt dizzy and off balanced, as if he was suddenly awakening in his body, a stranger who appeared after some unremembered journey. There were flashes in his mind of images - perhaps memories somehow - of him in another time. He remembered reveling in a feeling of desire for great power, the threats he made to the kingdom, Princess Sara on a stark white bed in a temple of darkness.

He turned from the procession, his breath coming quickly as more images assaulted him. Four fiends that ruled with terror, a journey through time, a never-ending loop. As Garland curled his hands into trembling fists, he noticed four people enter the castle. They regarded him with guarded glares. There were a crimson haired knight and white wizard, a black wizard dressed in blue, and a red wizard dressed in scarlet hues.

“Warriors of Light,” Garland murmured to himself as he remembered a cloudy recollection of seeing these four, over and over, pain and defeat and escape over and over, until a final ending. Death and a breaking of cyclical time.

How was he alive now? He turned back towards the thrones. Was all that he saw a dream? Did he really give up his honor simply for the pursuit of power? Was he destined to do so again?

As he finally approached the thrones he bowed deeply. Princess Sara smiled at him with her gracious smile. At that moment Garland reached deep down into himself and felt no desire for power or evil, just his remembered desire to serve his lieges and kingdom as the best knight in all of Cornelia. He was free from whatever evil had possessed him and he smiled under his helmet.

The four warriors stood at the entrance of the castle of Cornelia. They had ridden back and forth through time as though it was nothing and they found themselves back at the beginning after facing the end. As they entered the castle they saw the knight Garland and for a moment were ready to draw their weapons and engage him once more. But the white wizard held up her hand. 

“Something’s different,” she said, “I can feel it. We are free of the time loop.”

“But does that mean Garland has changed? Or will he once again start the chain of events we have suffered through?” The knight asked, clutching his sword hilt tightly.

“I don’t feel the same hostility and hate that once flowed through him,” she said, her hand outstretched towards Garland. “I think...I know that he has escaped the time loop as well, he is who he once was, a faithful knight.”

“I sense that too,” the red wizard concurred. The four relaxed slightly. Besides some wary looks from the Cornelian guards, no one called out to them or even acknowledged the four. How different from when they first came to this castle, the King and Queen leaving their thrones and welcoming them, the mystics calling them the prophesied Warriors of Light. Even as they saw the rulers look their way, there was no recognition in their eyes.

“Have we been forgotten?” The black wizard asked, sounding a bit wistful.

“I think...I think we are back at the beginning of all things,” the white wizard said. “By breaking the time loop we are here before any of those events took place. Therefore no one knows who we are.”

“Well wonderful for us,” the black wizard sighed; he had liked the idea of being known as a hero.

“But are we sure that Garland has changed?” The knight insisted. “What if he decides he likes power a little too much again?”

“Do you not trust my senses?” The white wizard sighed. But then she smiled and said, “Well, if things do go topsy-turvy again, I know that we can triumph. We’ve done it before.”

After the ceremony of knights, Garland found himself walking towards the four Warriors of Light, motioning for them to follow him outside the castle. Once they were a short distance from prying ears, Garland turned to speak to them.

“Do you remember me?” Garland asked the four Warriors of Light.

“Yes,” they replied in unison. 

“How can I ever beg for your forgiveness for what I put the kingdom, and you, through?”

“You no longer have any desire for power, is that correct?” The white wizard asked him.

Garland shook his head vehemently. “No, all I desire is to serve my kingdom and my lieges.”

“I sense no dishonesty in him,” the white wizard announced. The others sighed in relief.

Still, Garland bowed down before them, the four gasping softly at the gesture. “I...I apologize for my past actions. I know my words cannot undo what I have done, all I can do is ask for forgiveness and prove my worthy intentions as I go forward.”

The four grasped him by the shoulders and lifted him from his kneeling position. They smiled at him, a mixture of relief and happiness, any animosity between them now gone at the breaking of the cycle.

“You honor me,” Garland said and, in a most unknightly manner, scooped the four warriors into a tight embrace. The five of them laughed happily then, all evil lost to time, now just a happy future facing them all as they went on with their now more ordinary lives.

Garland waved to the four Warriors of Light as they left the castle grounds, headed off to some new and exciting adventure. He returned inside and found Princess Sara waiting for him. She was holding a bouquet of red roses and approached him with soft steps. The roses were offered to him and he accepted them as he kneeled down before her.

“For my most honored knight,” she said, smiling beautifully down at him. He could not help but smile back and clutched the bouquet to his chest, finally feeling the serenity and happiness he once knew.


End file.
